Homes

People have been using rain barrels, or cisterns, for thousands of years to capture and store free water from the sky. Historical records show that rainwater was collected in simple clay containers as far back as 2,000 years ago. In recent years, they have regained popularity as drought conditions have persisted, and local utility companies

Text by Joanne M. Anderson Photos by Always and Forever Photography Riner was once a thriving village with a sawmill, lumber yard, tobacco factory, tannery, hotel, shoe factory and well company. Originally called Old Forks around 1808...

In the same year that Google was founded, the TV show “Seinfeld” came to an end and the highly acclaimed books “The Not So Big House” and “Eclectic Style in Interior Design” were published, Lois Baumgartner went...

Between You Tube videos and workshops at local home improvement stores, the highly motivated, budget-conscious homeowner can learn to tackle projects from repairing drywall to installing toilets. But which home improvement tasks are good do-it-yourself (DIY) projects...

“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort,” Jane Austen once wrote. Home is where we want to be at the end of the work day or even for the budget-conscious, relaxing and fun staycation....

Being from Vermont and my husband from Wisconsin, we were somewhat enamored with the stencil cows in the kitchen when we purchased this house, one of the first built by Shelter Alternatives in 1990, give or take...

Not every line drawn in the sand washes away forever with the tides. Not finding the perfect home on the market, Jim Westwood and Brenda Winkel purchased five acres with a single pear tree near the Prices...

When Victoria and Steve Cochran bought their mountainside home in the New River Valley in 2001, it had at least 10 gables, but no shelties or fairies. Along with a classy, renovated kitchen, incredibly beautiful and functional...

Jimmy and Joann Hammons were relaxing one day in the rockers on the front porch of their personal, circa 1950s, store building. A car went by on the 2-lane, back country road, slowed down, backed up slowly...

I knew of growing vegetables in straw bales and using them to create raised beds or cold frame space, but the recipe for creating a straw bale garden was just recently shared with me. I’ve been working...